Which Laptop to Buy? Advent, Sony or HP

tomreid10

Hi

Trying to help a colleague finalise her choice of new laptop. Her criteria is - "general use, with good screen/image quality and is not too slow".

The three she has narrowed down to are:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/sony-vpceh3b1e-w-cek-15-5-laptop-white-11884720-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-1335sa-15-6-laptop-purple-12303684-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/advent-monza-n3-15-6-laptop-pink-11871370-pdt.html

I think the HP is the best price / spec.

Anyone got any views that's help us?

Any reason not to go to a laptop with an AMD chip as opposed to Intel?

Thanks all.

cheers

TakeThis

Forget about the Advent. The Sony is too expensive and no opinion of the HP machine.

Notmyrealname

Forget about the HP - they're built down to a price as is the Advent.

Personally if I was wanting a laptop built to last, I'd not look at anything under £800 and would consider a Macbook Pro not because its Apple but because of the build quality. I would also look at Dell Latitude and Lenovo Thinkpad T and X series.

Although the aforementioned are dear to buy, Apple especially and Thinkpads slightly less so hold their value well so if you sold it 3 years down the line the MBP for example would have cost you about £300-£400. Yes thats no less than the ones mentioned but in that time you've not had to replace a battery, probably have the charge socket fixed or the hinges replaced.

tomreid10

What's the issue about the Advent?

Notmyrealname

tomreid10 wrote: »

What's the issue about the Advent?

The same as all of them in this price range. Screen hinges, charge sockets, batteries.

All these laptops are built down to a price. They shove loads of RAM and large hard drives in and give them a glossy finish because those are cheaper to do than use decent hinges, better plastics, use an alloy chassis etc.

With the £200 odd ones from Toshiba the case plastics are thinner and you can feel them flex more compared to the £500 odd ones.

closed

what is she using now?

roddydogs

Asus.................

fwor

I'd not consider an Advent either - they don't have a good reputation for durability/reliability.

I wouldn't discount the HP. Sure, they are built down to a price, but what isn't in that price range?

The HP has a somewhat inferior processor than the Sony, but unless you're doing something CPU-intensive that's not likely to be an issue. It's from the AMD fusion range (where the graphics processor is built into the CPU), so the graphics performance should be good too.

Knarf44

If you Google the HP model it seems some owners have complained it suffers a screen problem - of course this may be resolved now. Generally, in my experience of laptop repairs HP are not the most reliable of brands and I include some of their more expensive offerings in the DV Entertainment series in that opinion too.

m5rcc

Avoid buying anything at PC World/Currys.

Figment

m5rcc wrote: »

Avoid buying anything at PC World/Currys.

Care to elaborate on this ?